Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed's editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.
This fan's flat design makes it small, lightweight, and portable, without sacrificing power. Its dial can be set freely, offering a range of speeds.
Read More
This tower fan is designed to be twistable and oscillating, making it best for multiple users. It generates impressive power and lots of volume.
Read More
Written byMark Brezinski, senior writer who's been testing and reviewing products for over a decade.
Updated May 31, 2023
Your desktop fan can be a constant workday companion, or provide you with white noise and a comfortable breeze as you fall asleep. But whether you want a desk fan for your home or your office, finding the perfect one can be tough.
We brought a range of top fans into our labs for testing, and found that the Vornado Pivot Personal Air Circulator
(available at Amazon for $22.99)
is the best overall desk fan, offering the perfect mixture of wind speed, quiet operation, variable settings, and aesthetics. While it is our favorite overall, there are a lot of great picks on this list you may like even better.
Best Overall
Vornado Pivot Personal Air Circulator
Dimensions: 5.1 x 5.8 x 6 inches (depth x width x height)
Speeds: 3
It should come as no surprise that Vornado’s small desk fan blows away its competition, since the company also topped our review of full-size fans.
The Pivot Personal Air Circulator manages to check all the boxes of what makes a personal fan great. This fan is powerful—its top setting creates the strongest breeze of the bunch, and when you need to keep noise to a minimum, its two lower settings are each appropriate for an open-office environment.
At around $20, the Pivot offers a lot of power for its price.The Pivot also comes with Vornado’s five-year warranty—a process that online reviewers claim is straightforward and easy to complete.
Dimensions: 8.27 x 8.27 x 11.42 inches (depth x width x height)
Speeds: 5
The Iris USA Woozoo SC15 globe fan isn’t the quietest fan on this list, but it does offer a great range of functionality. In addition to its five different speed settings, timed mode, and oscillation, it also has a breeze mode, which attempts to mimic a natural pattern of wind by smoothly cycling through different speed settings. Whether this mode is serenely calming or distracting is up to the user, but we like its inclusion as an option regardless.
Unlike many other desk fans, this one comes with a remote control. The remote has a nice layout with clear labeling and responsive buttons for all of the fan’s functions. While it oscillates, we did not find that the side to side movement in desk fans is particularly meaningful. Still, its small footprint and high power make it an excellent addition to any desk.
Dimensions: 5.71 x 7.09 x 6.3 inches (depth x width x height)
Speeds: 3
The TTKTK Desk Fan surprised us. Looking at its wood-patterned plastic exterior, a mix of cheap and decent-looking components, and a dial with six positions yet only three different speeds, we thought this would be a dud.
However, it produced impressive wind speed. It also creates a lot of noise, but its lower speeds offer a better breeze-to-noise ratio for office settings. We also like its vertical adjustability, which allows you to angle it appropriately wherever you set it.
Dimensions: 5.6 x 8 x 1.7 inches (foldable) (depth x width x height)
Speeds: Controlled by dimmer switch
We were surprised at the wind speed we measured from this incredibly lightweight, battery-powered fan. At its highest speed, it competed with our top performers, while its lowest settings provided decent wind without much noise.
Aside from its flat form factor and battery-powered portability, the EasyAcc Desk Fan is notable for being the most customizable—its dial operates like a dimmer switch, allowing you to finely adjust its speed.
Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 14 inches (depth x width x height)
Speeds: 3
The Lasko Platinum is a small tower fan with an interesting design, full of curves and asymmetry. You can twist the top and bottom halves independently to help share the breeze with a friend, and it can oscillate to cover an even wider area.
It has fewer settings than some other fans on this list, but it covers its bases well enough, providing everything from a decently high wind speed to a moderate, quiet breeze. Still, this fan is on the louder side on most settings.
Dimensions: 4.7 x 4.7 x 4.5 inches (depth x width x height)
Speeds: 1
This tiny fan doesn’t offer much more than an on/off switch, an adjustable tilt head, and 10 mph winds. We like its design, which looks like a miniature version of an industrial floor fan. It's also quite small—it’s impressive how much wind you get out of its relatively quiet, 4-inch fan blade.
The one downside is that it creates some minor vibrations, possibly enough to rattle a coffee mug full of pens. Otherwise, this is a small, simple, inexpensive desk fan that will likely meet most people’s needs.
Dimensions: 4.72 x 4.72 x 12.99 inches (depth x width x height)
Speeds: 4
Right out of the box, we were confused about this fan. It features a tower design with a single, small fan centered vertically inside. There’s quite a lot of space between the controls, the fan, and the top, leaving us wondering why it’s so tall.
This fan didn’t put up a particularly impressive performance. It seems to be aimed at consumers who want a quiet desk fan with plenty of options, but neither its wind speed nor its quietness impressed us. It does have some features we don’t see on all other models, like a timer mode, but they don’t make up for its lack of performance. There are better fans.
Hello! I'm Mark Brezinski, and I've been testing and reviewing consumer tech for over a decade. At Reviewed, I’ve developed testing for dozens of different categories, from smart phones to headphones and more.
The Tests
Desk fans may be smaller, but we put them through the same rigorous testing in our labs as floor fans and tower fans. In a closed-off testing area, we measure wind speeds produced by the fans at seven different points to calculate the volume of air being moved.
While a fan’s ability to create a cooling breeze is its primary function, we also tested other aspects of each fan’s performance, including noise level, energy efficiency, and ease of use.
What You Should Consider Before Buying A Desk Fan
Size
Desk fans and table fans are designed to take up less space, but they come in a variety of sizes. The fans we tested ranged from tiny—less than 5 inches tall and about as wide and deep—to more formidable options. If you plan on using the fan on your desk, make sure you still have space for everything else you need.
Noise output
Desk fans may be small in size, but they can create a lot of noise, which could be a problem in an office setting. Look for something that isn’t so loud that it will annoy coworkers. Also, look for a fan quiet enough that you don’t have to turn it off while you make phone calls or participate in Zoom meetings.
Speed settings
The more settings a desk fan has, the more customizable the airflow. A fan with more than just low and high settings will allow you to better pick the breeze level that you desire. Also, a fan on its highest setting might be too loud for an office, but the best desk fans can still create plenty of air movement at lower speeds, which typically come with less noise too.
Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.
The product experts at Reviewed
have all your shopping needs covered.
Follow Reviewed on Facebook,
Twitter,
Instagram,
TikTok,
or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews, and more.
Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.